Form Opinions Based On Facts

June 9, 2006|Cynthia Harnist Plantation

Reading the headline of a recent letter, "Bush has protected nation's freedoms" (Saturday), is a reminder of how divided our country is. In his book, My Life, former President Bill Clinton noted that America has been at a crossroads several times in its history, where the issues facing our nation -- such as the Civil War, the two World Wars, the different social movements of the1960s -- would define our course for years to come. We are currently in the throes of re-evaluating who we are as a super power and how we will behave in the world post-9-11.

Former President Jimmy Carter has written an excellent book, Our Endangered Values, which addresses the challenges that we face as American citizens.

The course that President Bush and his colleagues have decided to take is referred to as "pre-emptive strike," which means that our military has the right to invade a sovereign nation, such as Iraq, in order to protect and preserve our freedoms. Some citizens may think that this is the first time that this philosophy has been adopted; however, this is actually par for the course.

In his book, Overthrow, Stephen Kinzer highlights 14 incidents of violent intervention by the United States in the internal affairs of foreign countries during the last 100 years in which the motivation was personal or political gain, not self-defense.

As citizens of "a country where we enjoy the greatest standard of economic and political freedom the world has ever known," as the letter writer stated, it is incumbent upon us all to form our political opinions based upon our own research, hopefully with an open mind to what we may find out.